Author: Edward Seid
Date: 17:02:01 01/16/03
From what I've read about different board representations, 12x12 makes it easier to determine off-the-board knight moves, while 0x88 utilizes a shortcut to generate moves for sliding pieces. Consider a simple chess variant in which there are only pawns and no other pieces. It seems to me that neither of these representations would be applicable in a game with only pawns, and that the best representation would be a simple 8x8 array. Does that make sense? FYI, I'm learning VB.NET on my own. For my first chess-related project, I plan to write a program to play the Pawn Game, as described by GM Lev Alburt in "Comprehensive Chess Course". You play with only pawns on their original squares. The game is won by: 1- capturing all your opponent's pawns, 2- be the first to advance a pawn to the last rank, or 3- "stalemate" your opponent, while having at least one remaining move for yourself. In subsequent chapters, GM Alburt describes other variants, in which knights, bishops, rooks and queens (no kings) are also used. So as an extension of this original programming project, I hope to add functionality for these other variants so that the user can choose which pieces to use prior to the start of the game. GM Alburt claims that playing these variants will teach a student the value and power of the different pieces, before moving to the classical chess game. Finally, if my goal is to eventually handle all of the Pawn and Piece variants, perhaps I should choose one of the other board representations from the beginning, even for the Pawn Game. Comments are welcomed!
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.